mittfh Posted November 7, 2009 Report Share Posted November 7, 2009 I upgraded from 2009.1 to 2010 today...love the new splash screen and throbber! BUT although the login screen appears OK, trying to log in (either as myself or the auto-generated guest) results in a blank desktop, with only the background image showing (if it's any help, I don't think gnome-panel loaded...or at least, its splash screen didn't appear). On a hunch, I installed xfce, and have got a fully functional desktop that way, but any hints / tips / suggestions to get GNOME functional would be appreciated :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted November 7, 2009 Report Share Posted November 7, 2009 Probably nautilus is either not drawing the icons on the desktop, or that the icons have been turned off. You can run gconf-editor (if not installed, install it), and then you can go into: apps --> nautilus --> preferences and enable show_desktop or check under: apps --> nautilus --> desktop and see if the whatever_icon_visible is checked or not. Check the items you need, and you'll have your desktop back. Another good test, is plug in a USB stick and see if the icon shows on the desktop. If so, then the show_desktop item is enabled, but you just don't see the computer, trash and home icons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mittfh Posted November 7, 2009 Author Report Share Posted November 7, 2009 (edited) You can run gconf-editor apps --> nautilus --> preferences and enable show_desktop Hmm...that key didn't exist (! Now created) - and neither does apps / nautilus / desktop [Later on...] Nope. I even removed previous kernels and all the orphans depending on them, just to be on the safe side. In whatever manages to load in gnome, there are no icons, no panels, no right-click menu - about the only signs of life are the default Mandriva background and gkrellm. Oh, and it's the same regardless of whether I log on as myself or guest (which obviously doesn't have any custom configs). Xfce works and loads very fast (well, it is the default "light" desktop environment), but it is a bit plain and I prefer gnome (well, a functional gnome, at least!) :) So, for your viewing pleasure, three different outputs of "ps ax" (to give you a clue as to what is running, and if there's anything odd about the gnome version). All three were taken in tty6 while X was doing its thing in tty7. Nodesk - login prompt only. xfce - in xfce. gnome - in gnome (or at least, what loads as gnome) -oOo- Additional unrelated issue (from before the upgrade): Where does Compiz store its preferences? I once accidentally set the opacity on the CCSM window to 0% (oops!)... ps-nodesk.txt ps-xfce.txt ps-gnome.txt Edited November 7, 2009 by mittfh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted November 7, 2009 Report Share Posted November 7, 2009 Maybe in later version of Gnome, things changed and the gconf stuff for nautilus isn't in the same place. I'm pretty sure this is a gnome config issue that has the desktop stuff switched off by default, but I don't have Mandy installed to be able to check and diagnose it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mittfh Posted November 8, 2009 Author Report Share Posted November 8, 2009 Now solved - albeit by one of the most radical methods possible. urpme -a gnome urpme --auto-orphans Reboot urpmi gnome-task-minimal Reboot - notice MCC, Compiz and Emerald are missing... urpmi drakconf urpmi compiz -oOo- Since I was forced to do the 2010 upgrade in two stages (ran out of room on the root partition, then had to shut down to get to work on time - so when I restarted I shifted /var into the /home partition and symlinked it back before resuming), I suspect something may have got corrupted in the upgrade. So by nuking Gnome and reinstalling it... :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted November 8, 2009 Report Share Posted November 8, 2009 It could well have, or some config files not replaced with new ones, but glad you're back and running :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kfoss Posted November 25, 2009 Report Share Posted November 25, 2009 Mittfh, I did an upgrade last night from 2008.0 to 2010.0 and I had the same blank screen with only the desktop background. Rather frustrating. :( I will try your path tonight to "restore" a proper desktop. On a side note, when I ran into this problem, I switched out of X and logged in as root. Although I know it is not a good idea, I always allow Root logins into KDE (never caused any problems in 10 years!). It required changing a field in the "kdmrc" file, and after restarting X, I logged into KDE as root and had my old 2008 desktop sitting in front of me. It's odd, as if I try to log in as my regular user...nothing still. Upgrades shouldn't be so complicated, but they always cause some headaches which is why I stayed at 2008 for so long. Kev Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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